Ground moved at future hub

Linda N. Weller, lweller@civitasmedia.com

Published
10:59 pm CDT, Wednesday, September 16, 2015

Heavy equipment was working Wednesday on clearing trees and digging up stumps at the former Robert P. Wadlow Golf Course as site work was underway for the new Alton Regional Multi-Modal Transportation Center. The work is on the northeastern portion of the former course located at the corner of Golf Road and the Homer Adams Parkway in Alton. less

Heavy equipment was working Wednesday on clearing trees and digging up stumps at the former Robert P. Wadlow Golf Course as site work was underway for the new Alton Regional Multi-Modal Transportation Center. ... more

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Heavy equipment was working Wednesday on clearing trees and digging up stumps at the former Robert P. Wadlow Golf Course as site work was underway for the new Alton Regional Multi-Modal Transportation Center. The work is on the northeastern portion of the former course located at the corner of Golf Road and the Homer Adams Parkway in Alton. less

Heavy equipment was working Wednesday on clearing trees and digging up stumps at the former Robert P. Wadlow Golf Course as site work was underway for the new Alton Regional Multi-Modal Transportation Center. ... more

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ALTON — Site work continues at the future Alton Regional Multi-Modal Transportation Center, with crews removing some trees, and three doomed outbuildings awaiting demolition.

“Two storage sheds and a pump house will be demolished within a week to two weeks,” said Greg Caffey, Alton director of development and housing. The buildings are on the southwest end of the former Robert P. Wadlow Municipal Golf Course, at Golf Road north of Homer Adams Parkway.

At the same time, this week a work crew was busy inside the former golf clubhouse in that same area of the property. Abatement Management of South Roxana will be removing asbestos from the clubhouse per its $4,955 contract with the city.

The clubhouse, though, will remain standing during much of the $25 million project, with engineers and contractors using it as their offices during the construction process. That structure will come down toward end of the project, Caffey said.

“The relocation of Golf Road will move it (road) to the east,” where the clubhouse sits, Caffey said. The Golf Road-Buckmaster Lane lighted intersection with busy Homer Adams Parkway will be improved as part of the project.

All of the old buildings are on that southwest corner of the 55-acre site, where a groundbreaking will be held at 10 a.m. Monday. The planned, 8,000-square-foot transportation center will be built on the northeast portion of the property. Caffey said it would not be safe to hold the groundbreaking at the building site proper with the ongoing groundwork.

Comprising the rest of the site, the city set aside green space where it remediated two river tributaries feeding the west fork of the Wood River and the surrounding riparian zone. There also are three parcels totaling 28 square acres that officials want to develop as mixed-use areas.

The city has a $1,536,314 contract from L.W. Contractors Inc. of Collinsville, the lowest of five bidders, to do the grading and demolitions, considered “Work Package 1.” Juneau and Associates engineers are overseeing the site grading and Golf Road intersection work.

The future, modern Prairie Style transportation center will service higher-speed, 110-mph Amtrak trains and passengers and Madison County Transit District buses. It also will have trailheads for bicyclists and pedestrians. The brick station design has clean and simple horizontal lines with side wings and overhangs. It will have glass walls on its front and rear, extending upward beyond two stories, to provide light and visibility of trains and tracks.

Under provisions of the grants the city is receiving for the project, Alton must complete construction of the center by Dec. 31, 2016.

The project’s funding includes: $13.85 million TIGER grant; Illinois Department of Transportation, $7.4 million derived from Federal Railroad Association and state funds; city of Alton’s in-kind half of the 20 percent local obligation in the form of the land donation for the project; and Madison County Transit District, the other half of the 10 percent local obligation.